No Wonder Everything Is a Mess
Hey Folks,
Is it any wonder that things are so screwed up in this world? What with “the reality based community,” science, and reason under attack by our President, his Neo-Conehead posse, religious zealots, racists, xenophobes, homophobes, et.al. - what rationality can we expect?
It’s one thing to take one’s personal, spiritual beliefs on faith; it’s another to present the world’s physical reality any way one wants simply because one wants to believe it is that way – regardless of the facts available within the “reality based community.”
Below are some examples of this mental disorder – i.e. making insane claims simply because one feels the need to.
Now, whatever the complete truth is regarding Hugo Chaves, the President of Venezuela, its discovery is not aided by either of two recent letters to the Columbus Dispatch regarding Mr. Chavez. All we really learn is that two woefully ignorant letter-writers don’t like him – apparently because the faith of their central-Ohio upbringing requires them not to like him.
The first example:
Venezuelan leader not known for benevolence
Friday, June 02, 2006
I respond to Saturday’s letter from Anthony Fife, "U.S. should sit down and listen to Chavez’s oil deal." I suggest that he visit, unannounced, Venezuela and note the military rule and the poor people. Then he will see how President Hugo Chavez shares his wealth.
MARILYN A. CLARK Columbus
Well, I dare say that if the Uke Man should attempt to tour Venezuela, he would love to be “announced,” but I think my chances for that are slim. I NEVER get announced ANYWHERE until I’m going on stage. Marilyn’s suggestion to slip into Venezuela keeping a low profile should be pretty damned simple for most of us.
I am a bit confused, though, as to how I would be able to recognize the “military rule.” Mr. Chavez WAS elected (twice) by much larger percentages than President Bush. And although he most likely has “military types” in his government, we just got a new director of the CIA who is a General known for creating a telephone eavesdropping program. How can we tell the difference?
Maybe – I don’t know for sure – a visitor to Venezuela might see National Guard troops in the airports. I see them HERE!! And maybe – I don’t know - visitors might see police arresting protestors. I see them HERE!! Maybe – but I don’t think so – visitors could view TV reports of Venezuelan military personnel killing and being killed in foreign wars.
It sounds like maybe Marilyn needs to rethink this point.
As for noting the “poor people,” I’m sure that won’t be a problem. Before Chavez was elected, twenty percent of Venezuelans were very wealthy and eighty percent were dirt poor. Although Chavez has diverted significant amounts of money from the elites to programs to help the masses, I’m sure that – while the masses are better off than pre-Chavez – they are not yet living the high life.
Of course, if Marilyn would get her ass out of her armchair and move around Columbus a bit, she could find plenty of extreme poverty right here at home – but that (foolish me) would involve the reality based community.
All this certainly does suggest a few questions: Why in the world would someone with so little actual knowledge and understanding of a situation seem so confident spouting idiotic accusations? What is her actual psychological motivation in sending her rant to a newspaper in the first place? And what motivates the paper to print patently ignorant and biased commentary?
These questions were again suggested by a second, long, letter from Mark Friday of Blacklick. While seemingly containing more “facts,” it was – like the first – a faith-based mental problem on display (you can read it, along with my comments at: http://www.ukuleleman.net/2006/05/dont-let-ignorance-stop-you-mark.html
Suffice it here to say that my man Friday sounded as if he were channeling a paranoid John Bircher from the 50’s. He forgot only to mention fluoridation of the drinking water, and the necessity to impeach Earl Warren.
It’s not difficult to see why the world is in such a mess when poor souls like Marilyn and Mark – who are dumb as rocks, as sure of themselves as John the Baptist, and angry as hell that anyone in "the reality based community" might not toe their line - when people like that get treated by the only newspaper in town as if they had something worthwhile to say.
- Uke Man
Is it any wonder that things are so screwed up in this world? What with “the reality based community,” science, and reason under attack by our President, his Neo-Conehead posse, religious zealots, racists, xenophobes, homophobes, et.al. - what rationality can we expect?
It’s one thing to take one’s personal, spiritual beliefs on faith; it’s another to present the world’s physical reality any way one wants simply because one wants to believe it is that way – regardless of the facts available within the “reality based community.”
Below are some examples of this mental disorder – i.e. making insane claims simply because one feels the need to.
Now, whatever the complete truth is regarding Hugo Chaves, the President of Venezuela, its discovery is not aided by either of two recent letters to the Columbus Dispatch regarding Mr. Chavez. All we really learn is that two woefully ignorant letter-writers don’t like him – apparently because the faith of their central-Ohio upbringing requires them not to like him.
The first example:
Venezuelan leader not known for benevolence
Friday, June 02, 2006
I respond to Saturday’s letter from Anthony Fife, "U.S. should sit down and listen to Chavez’s oil deal." I suggest that he visit, unannounced, Venezuela and note the military rule and the poor people. Then he will see how President Hugo Chavez shares his wealth.
MARILYN A. CLARK Columbus
Well, I dare say that if the Uke Man should attempt to tour Venezuela, he would love to be “announced,” but I think my chances for that are slim. I NEVER get announced ANYWHERE until I’m going on stage. Marilyn’s suggestion to slip into Venezuela keeping a low profile should be pretty damned simple for most of us.
I am a bit confused, though, as to how I would be able to recognize the “military rule.” Mr. Chavez WAS elected (twice) by much larger percentages than President Bush. And although he most likely has “military types” in his government, we just got a new director of the CIA who is a General known for creating a telephone eavesdropping program. How can we tell the difference?
Maybe – I don’t know for sure – a visitor to Venezuela might see National Guard troops in the airports. I see them HERE!! And maybe – I don’t know - visitors might see police arresting protestors. I see them HERE!! Maybe – but I don’t think so – visitors could view TV reports of Venezuelan military personnel killing and being killed in foreign wars.
It sounds like maybe Marilyn needs to rethink this point.
As for noting the “poor people,” I’m sure that won’t be a problem. Before Chavez was elected, twenty percent of Venezuelans were very wealthy and eighty percent were dirt poor. Although Chavez has diverted significant amounts of money from the elites to programs to help the masses, I’m sure that – while the masses are better off than pre-Chavez – they are not yet living the high life.
Of course, if Marilyn would get her ass out of her armchair and move around Columbus a bit, she could find plenty of extreme poverty right here at home – but that (foolish me) would involve the reality based community.
All this certainly does suggest a few questions: Why in the world would someone with so little actual knowledge and understanding of a situation seem so confident spouting idiotic accusations? What is her actual psychological motivation in sending her rant to a newspaper in the first place? And what motivates the paper to print patently ignorant and biased commentary?
These questions were again suggested by a second, long, letter from Mark Friday of Blacklick. While seemingly containing more “facts,” it was – like the first – a faith-based mental problem on display (you can read it, along with my comments at: http://www.ukuleleman.net/2006/05/dont-let-ignorance-stop-you-mark.html
Suffice it here to say that my man Friday sounded as if he were channeling a paranoid John Bircher from the 50’s. He forgot only to mention fluoridation of the drinking water, and the necessity to impeach Earl Warren.
It’s not difficult to see why the world is in such a mess when poor souls like Marilyn and Mark – who are dumb as rocks, as sure of themselves as John the Baptist, and angry as hell that anyone in "the reality based community" might not toe their line - when people like that get treated by the only newspaper in town as if they had something worthwhile to say.
- Uke Man
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